China held contingency response drills on Tuesday morning, as the country is marking the anniversary of last year's devastating May 12 earthquake.

The drills began at 9:30 AM at the national training base for seismic rescue in Beijing. Evacuation of people, search and rescue after earthquakes, and transfers of the injured are part of the drills.

Similar drills were also held nationwide to enhance people's knowledge of and emergency response to natural disasters like a massive earthquake.

The country has decided to make May 12 the "Disaster Prevention and Reduction Day" in light of last year's magnitude-8.0 quake that left more than 87,000 people dead or missing and more than 374,640 injured.

The nation is to mark the anniversary of the May 12 quake, which struck at 2:28 PM, on Tuesday afternoon, with commemorative activities to be held in the epicenter of Yingxiu, Wenchuan County of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2009)